After two separate heated arguments with "so-called" friends, I have deleted my Facebook account. It has been a way for "friends" to start drama in my life that I don't need.
Do any of you think this is social clutter as well?
Overall Rating: 3 votes
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Posted 2 years ago #
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I haven't deleted mine, but I rarely access it, the last time was probably Thanksgiving. I have a picasa album for my family to view pictures, and I call and/or email those I want to talk with.
It could just be me, but my Facebook became out of control with old friends from high school, college, and former jobs always contacting me or adding me to their friends list. Then the extended family started. At first I would add them thinking it would be nice to reconnect, then I found out why we lost touch.
I also tired of the Facebook fights and drama that would inevitably start when someone commented about this or that or posted a "secret". I thought we were all adults and old enough to move past this stuff, or at least keep stuff quiet if asked, I guess not.
Bottom line for me, I don't need it, I don't really like it, and keeping it updated enough to matter started getting in the way of my real friends and family that I see or communicate with all the time.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Ha! I just joined facebook after getting no less than four Christmas Cards asking me to do so that 'we can keep in touch'. After the initial rush of connecting with people from high school, I've found it to be rather shallow. I'm not really developing friendships, but rather glimpsing the headlines of people's daily lives. I think I'll keep it open, but after just a couple of weeks of being a member, I'm already losing interest.
Posted 2 years ago # -
this is kinda why i love Myspace now, b/c everyone is on Facebook, i have a few friend on myspace i keep in touch with and thats its, a few family memebers also, and my profile is private and you have to know me to add me so i don't get a lot of drama on there. if i did i wouldn't hesitate to delete it though.
Posted 2 years ago # -
MySpace, FaceBook (what I like to call "MyFace") and Twitter are all absolutely mental clutter. Twitter has the advantage over MyFace with its very limited length, and you don't have to read all the Mafia Wars "I leveled up" messages.
They can be fun though. But, I'm going back to just my little blog that no one reads (which is just fine) and Twitter.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I joined Faceboook in 2004 while in college.
For a time, Facebook was a way for college kids to connect and network. Profiles were basic and everyone had a wall and you could send messages. That was about it. There were only college students on Facebook.
Since then, Facebook has become social clutter.
There is the aspect of everyone you have ever known friending you, which can lead to complications, and Facebook has become completely dumbed down with people sending each other virtual gifts, drinks, playing virtual games, and a million other things that do nothing but waste time and energy.
The status updates are totally insipid - I have come to believe that people post status updates simply because they are complete narcissists and by posting frequent updates, these people feel better/above others and think they have self-worth.
For a time, I loved Facebook. It was fun. However, when it opened up to the world at large, that is when everything changed. Many people are now my "friends" on Facebook and every time I share anything, I have to think to myself if this is going to be totally okay to share with hundreds of people of all ages? It is a pain.
Facebook has become social clutter.
Posted 2 years ago # -
It's what you make it. If you have a bizillion friends and are connecting with people who create drama, then it's clutter. If you use it to keep in touch with people you genuinely want to maintain relation ship with, then it isn't.
There is too many blocks and privacy settings to make it anything less than an experience you want.
Posted 2 years ago # -
As a more mature Facebook user, I like it because I can keep in touch with my nieces and see photos of their families, which they only seldom send via email. I have lots of privacy settings and am only friends with people I actually want to keep in touch with. :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
I debated keeping my account open but deleting the drama creators - and then I realized I would be creating more drama by doing this, because people would become offended that I "unfriended" them. Ahh, the days before all of these social networking sites were so much simpler...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I use it to keep up with friends all over the country. Only one of them I have not met IRL, but have had contact with them online through craft and parenting forums and on eBay. It has allowed me to catch up with old friends from school and flatmates, cousins I rarely see due to distance, and a girl around the corner who due to our shift commitments - we also work in the same department - I rarely get to see face to face. Sometimes it gets a little banal, but I haven't invited the whole world to be my friend, nor do I want to. I do check it as often as I check my e-mail - a couple of times a day - unless I have a crop to harvest, but then I schedule that in around my life too. And my privacy settings are pretty tight too.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I too joined Facebook in 2004, when it was new and shiny and only open to 10 colleges. As they expanded to High Schools, and then to everyone, the quality of the site has gone down. But like everything else, it is what you made of it. I make liberal use of the "hide" feature so I don't have to see notifications from people's games, or posts from people who post constantly and whose posts I'm not interested in. I don't post anything that I wouldn't want to read from someone else - the golden rule of facebook?.
I also use twitter liberally. All but one of my good friends are on it, and we have fun little conversations through it and note little interesting or funny things from our days, or links. It's lighthearted, drama free, and commitment free - it's ok to fall behind or not post for a while. I also follow a couple of bloggers whose tweets I enjoy, but that's it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I don't understand Twitter, how it works, so I haven't been back in a long time.
I don't visit Myspace much anymore, and I'm getting tired of Facebook, too! I hate all the silly comments and games, etc. If it were just a site to keep in touch, I think I would like it, but it there are too many silly things. If I want to play games, I go to Big Fish. I agree with pkilmain, though, I do like seeing photos of family and friends.
Posted 2 years ago # -
As many have said, its what you make of it. Like in real life, don't share anything you wouldn't say in public. I like it as a way to reconnect with people and a way to relax for a few minutes after the kids go to bed.
Posted 2 years ago # -
i never "got" myspace.
too old probably!i started a FB page 2 years ago and soon found it completely overwhelming...an absolute mishmash of online community friends and acquaintances....business-related people i know (customers, suppliers, colleagues)....relatives...friends of friends i had met once at a wedding overseas....and frankly, i began to feel exhausted keeping it all together.
at around the same time, i also began tweeting on twitter.
OMG, what a big mistake.
the mental clutter was just BEYOND BELIEF!!
i couldn't think straight...i was up at all hours trying to keep up...my work began to suffer.
ok, maybe i went a little extreme with it....finally, in january 09, i took the drastic step of just deleting both accounts and going cold turkey.
it was incredible....the zen-like space and quiet i created in two minutes.
the mental chatter was cut by 99%.
i was able to meditate more completely. i slept better. i was more productive.also, once i was out of both environments, i realised just how shallow and superficial most of those connections are.
a mere handful of people emailed me to see if i was ok.
i didn't have eleventy million contacts, but i didn't have a pathetically small number either.so yes, i think they are the worst kind of mental clutter...for me anyway!
obviously others may have more restraint than i did, lol!Posted 2 years ago # -
I agree - it is what you make of it.
I have heard of some people (who have hundreds or thousands of Facebook friends) have a second Facebook account that no one can see and with this second account, they only have ten or twenty of their closest friends. They then share personal stuff with their closest friends only.
When I first heard about this, it sounded great, and I considered doing this. I decided against it though, because it also sounded like more clutter. I would have to manage two Facebook accounts? I already spend too much time online as it is. That is too much...
Posted 2 years ago # -
A lot of my friends just begged me to re-activate my account. So I might do that and delete the people who aren't close with me and put the privacy settings on the highest they can be set at.
I won't even dare start a Twitter page. I used to have MySpace but deleted that.
Thank you everyone for your comments - they have helped me a lot!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I'm really thankful when I realize how thoroughly I have been able to evade the social networking craze. For me, it's nothing but clutter. I never joined MySpace, Facebook or Twitter, and nor do I plan to. I know it's hard when everybody in your social circle is on it, but I find that instant messaging communication is good enough. I only want to keep active channels of communications among my good friends, and that is easily done with a two-way chat. Besides, if I ever wanted to archive my daily life, I would begin keeping a journal with meaningful content and not just inane "status updates."
Posted 2 years ago # -
exactly sherry.
i blog and it's enough. for me.
i keep my recipes and photos and random thoughts there and people can catch up with me there or not, as they like.
i don't want to impose my clutter on anyone else, either, lol!Posted 2 years ago # -
I think I've tried most popular social networks (except MySpace) for a short period of time, only to shut down all my accounts a few months later. Facebook is the exception so far.
I'm another one of the people who joined Facebook in 2004, when it was a network for college students. At the time I actually found it useful, mainly because it had applications that allowed you to connect with other students (and profs!) in your classes, get more involved in certain campus activities etc. I started to have second thoughts when they opened it up to high school students, and felt a little miffed when they opened it up to everyone; what I thought was a good tool for students turned out to be just another springboard for yet another generic social network. Not only that, but many of the applications I had found useful at the beginning (such as the one where you could list the courses you were taking and see who else is in your class) have disappeared entirely!
I haven't shut down my account, though, because as others have said, it is what you make of it. I check it maybe once or twice a week, only keep in touch with my actual friends, and don't install any "apps" to clutter up my page and my time. If you steer clear of the clutter and social drama, Facebook can still be a good resource; I use it to get updates from some local groups I am involved in and to plan social events every now and then.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thank you all for suggesting that Facebook "is what you make of it". It has given me the push I needed to delete people who aren't really close with me and use it for what *I* see fit, not what others want me to use it for. I already feel less cluttered!
Posted 2 years ago #
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